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Animated Star Wars on Cartoon Network
NeoCode writes "There were rumours and speculations first. Now it looks like its a done deal. Harry Knowles, of AintItCool.com has reports on an animated version of Star Wars set after AOTC but before episode 3. This series is produced by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack). The cartoons will be a series of short films. Could this infuse Star Wars with a new life or is this just another merchandising plot? Nevertheless, this could be quite interesting."
Yeah look what good Ewoks & Droids did for the SW universe ;)
See telnet://blinkenlights.nl
I hate to see the already over commercialized star wars further cheapened like this. Are they going to have a Leia in the prisoner outfit???? If they do I'll watch it, cheap or not.
Hmm. Well, this could be a boon to the Star Wars franchise (which of course has done amazingly well anyhow ;) ) or it could just throw the chances of any sequels (Episode VII, anybody?) into the toilet.
It's simple, and I'll illustrate it by the example of Back to the Future. BTTF was a successful trilogy with many fans (among whom I am one), but then they introduced an animated TV show, and did a ride at Universal Studios: Florida, which used a plotline set after (fourth-dimensionally-speaking) all three of the movies. Both of these things added quite substantially to "the canon", as they were all officially blessed by the producers of the original BTTF trilogy.
Every episode of any official "Star Wars" cartoon that's even remotely related to the Skywalker clan or other key figures from the series has the potential to -greatly- complicate the Star Wars "canon", and making another series of movies that fit with the sum of the existing canon that much more difficult...
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
If its by tartakovski, i seriously think that this will be amazing.
Samurai Jack is one of the most peaceful, and exhilirating cartoons I have watched. The director is not afraid of satisfying the modern day attention span. Rather, I find this show to be a truly artistic maverick in company with other more marketable shows. Example: in a given episode of Jack, you can easily find 2-3 minutes of pure silence, which brings out the mood of 2 great warriors resting midway through a battle, or a quiet brook trickling next to a snowy field where our hero is seen in the corner of the screen slowly making his way.
Yet....the show is sorta cooky AND funny at times. Its VERY well done, as emersive as Aeon Flux for sure.
I know the cartoon will be good.
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Thats the sound of the cash cow, getting milked for all its worth.
If they make a Star Wars cartoon, they can make a whole new range of merchandise to keep em going until Ep3 comes out..
I wish they weren't so bloody obvious about it though.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Much of Lucas' dialog writing skillz come off like Mojo Jo Jo.
Luke, I, Darth Vader, am your father! And you shall obey my commands because I am the father (not the son). It is I who you will obey! Obeying my commands is what you will do as the son. I will give you commands, and you will obey them! Ha ha ha ha ha! I do this because I am bad, I am evil, I am the father. I am Darth Vader!
Second, WILL HE STOP IT WITH THE NAMEDROPPING??? Honestly, I used to think it was just a matter of jealousy on the aicn users part that they hated when he'd mention Robert Rodriguez as a friend. Now, however, he states in every article almost how some director called him personally, or how scared the industry is of him. Ugh. So annoying.
However, the ultimate reason why I don't visit AICN anymore has nothing to do with Harry at all.
a) His forums are not threaded. When a major forum with 1000 posts comes, it's impossible to have a CONVERSATION (the responses are 100 posts apart)and it's impossible to read any of the posts towards the bottom.
b) The forum posters piss me off more than anything. These people do NOT know how to enjoy something. AICN forums are simply mediums to pick apart every film's most microscopic (and even if non-existing) flaws and state such claims that Spiderman with organic web shooters "robs my childhood" - THOSE are the guys I want to take a bat to (which is why I LOVED the end of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back!(
Geeks don't bother me (hense, I'm on Slashdot), but assholes do.
You associate cartoons with childishness. Just because it's animated doesn't make it any less mature than your favourite live-action movie/TV series. There are many serious-minded, dramatic animated features ("Grave of the Fireflies", anyone?), and there are a number of advantages cartoons have over live action:
Virtually-unlimited special effects budget. In animation, you don't have to pay millions upon millions of dollars to show someone jumping out of a huge time portal, or show some horrific monster eat a man whole, or show a squadron of soldiers firing laser cannons. This is as simple to create in animation as anything else.
Character "casting". You don't have to hunt down the perfect actor/actress with the perfect weight, the perfect hair colour, the perfect voice, the perfect skin colour, etc., etc., in animation. You just draw the character the way you want him/her to appear, and there s/he is.
Idealism. The world just doesn't work the way some people want it to. You can't change the laws of physics, every single person you find won't be attractive, etc.. Cartoons work the way you want them to, whether they're realistic, deep, moving depictions of life (like many anime series/movies), or goofy, childish Saturday-morning cartoons (which can be masterpieces, despite their childishness).
What does the fact that you perform the same tasks as any other adult (and some teenagers) have anything to do with cartoons or video games? Seems to me like you've been brainwashed by some of the "intelligent" connoisseur types who associate these things with childishness/immaturity/unintelligence. This same phenomenon can be observed with Pokemon. The Game Boy games (which few who bash it have even played) are actually quite fun, and aren't really any more childish than any other game. What started this whole "Pokemon is for kids, you fanboy losers" thing is the fact that some American corporations saw that Pokemon made money, and they milked it for all that they could. They sold dolls, they sold stuffed animals, they sold cards, they sold McDonald's toys. THAT is why people hate Pokemon. If it had gone on as a regular Game Boy game like any other Game Boy game, nobody would've given it a second thought. Same thing happened to cartoons.
Anyway, video games, Harry Potter, anime, and cartoons are forms of entertainment, no different than your favourite band, your favourite TV show, or your favourite book. If it ENTERTAINS you, it's served its purpose.
(Luke is busy working on a piece of machinery)
Leia: "HI LUKE!!!!!"
(Luke tumbles from the shock of surprise)
Luke: "Leia, what do you want? I wish you would leave, because you are so STUUUPID. You are dumb and you are stuuupid."
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
"Empire" was much more grown up, but large parts of "Jedi" were as cartoony as episode 1.
The problem with Episode 1, was that while it really did have a pretty grown-up plot, the grown-up plot was given short shrift so Lucas could show us 21 minutes of Jake Lloyd going "Yippee!", 47 minutes of droids being blown up and chopped in half, 67 minutes of teeth-grindingly annoying Jar-Jar antics and 153 minutes of min-numbing pod racing. The plot, while very interesting, seemed like an afterthought, and was shoe-horned into a couple of short scenes, even though there was much more story to tell.
Episode II was good for pure action, but the lame attempts at characterization dashed any chance of being able to take the characters seriously.
Anakin: "My mother was killed so I became a mass-murderer!"
Amidala: "There, there. That's OK. We all go on a killing spree once in a while. Let's get married and have twins."
Anakin: "For no reason, I don't have a father."
Amidala: "Parthenogenesis is so-o-o-o cute. Can Jar-Jar be our best man?"
Anakin: "I'm just angry all the time."
Amidala: "Hush, dear. We're late for your aqualung fitting."
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.